Sony’s Forgotten Bet on WebTV

How Sony Helped Bring the Internet to Your TV

In the late 1990s, before we streamed movies or scroll through apps, the internet briefly tried to skip the computer altogether.

It didn’t seem like much. But it let you check email, visit websites, and scroll the news from your couch with a TV remote.

And behind it all was a strange alliance between a restless Silicon Valley engineer and a Japanese electronics giant better known for Walkmans than web browsers.

This is the forgotten story of WebTV. And how Sony helped bring the web to your living room.